The Influence of Political Culture on State Budgets

In addition to deepening the understanding of factors that influence budget outputs, this study also seeks to contribute to the larger discussion concerning the administrative implications of political culture. The data indicate that political culture exerted an independent impact on total state and local spending in the 1990s, even after controlling for commonly cited economic, political, and demographic variables. Although other variables undoubtedly influence policy outputs, this study suggests that the role of political culture should not be ignored and may be very useful for explaining policy variations that exist between jurisdictions.